Courtauld summer school day 1

It’s so nice to be back at the Courtauld Summer School and to see old friends from previous years.

This year is the Durer and Venice course lead by Dr Richard Williams. I chose it as a friend has joined me this year. He wanted to do Italian art, I wanted to do Northern so this seemed a good compromise. It’s proving to be fascinating as we bring enough visual knowledge of Venice to it but the Durer side is new and exciting.

The first day’s lectures set the scene. The first looked at the background of Germany and Italy at this time and the relationship between the two. The second looked at how Durer related to the Italian renaissance before he went to Venice, what he knew about it and where he was in his career.

As ever there was a gallery talk given by one of the research students. This year I opted for early medieval sculpture which was fascinating. The student (whose name I failed to get) had worked on a large Madonna and child in room 1 of the Courtauld Gallery and managed to ascertain the sculptor and where it sat in their career.

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